Unholy Alliance
by millstone1005
Summary: [Complete] Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper. AU. My version of the Caleb&Lindsay adoption storyline from episodes 2.13 and 2.14.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Unholy Alliance

Summary: Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to _The O.C_. No profit is taken from this story.

Author's Notes: This takes place after episode 2.12 _The Lonely Hearts Club_. It is based on the previews for episode 2.13 _The Test _in which Caleb wants to adopt Lindsay and Lindsay's mother Renee confides in Ryan that Lindsay cannot take a paternity test with Caleb. AU

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"You will _not_ believe my mother."

Ryan got the call from Marissa right before bedtime. As usual, she wanted to vent about her mother. Ryan was glad that he and Marissa continued to be friends, even after he yelled at her for letting Lindsay get drunk during their girls' night out. He was glad that he had gone to Alex's to apologize to her, and that she had accepted his apology.

Since then, Ryan kept Marissa informed when Caleb had his heart attack, and Marissa liked to call Ryan to share Julie's latest antics. She said that she knew Ryan would appreciate them.

Ryan lay back on his bed in the pool house. "What did she do this time?"

"You know how we've known all along that she just married Caleb for his money?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, she finally admitted it out loud. She told me at dinner tonight that she doesn't know how long she'll be married to him, and she wants to get as much out of him as possible before he kicks her out."

Ryan smiled. "She really said that?"

"Well, maybe not quite in those words..." Ryan laughed softly. "... but something to that effect. She did say that she's after his company. And you won't believe what she wants _me _to do."

"What?"

"She wants me to suck up to Caleb, too, to keep my 'inheritance' from going to 'Little Miss Lindsay', as she calls her. She hates it that Cal wants to have a relationship with Lindsay. I guess she thinks of her as a threat or something. How ridiculous is that? I mean, my Dad has money now and everything. I don't need Caleb. I'm not doing it."

"Good for you. Stand your ground." Ryan could hear Julie yelling in the background. "I guess you should go."

Marissa sighed. "Yeah. My Mom's on the warpath again. See you at school tomorrow."

"See you then."

After hanging up, Ryan found himself scowling. It never occurred to him that he'd have to watch out for Julie Cooper in all this. Caleb was hard enough to deal with, and now he'd have to look out for Lindsay with respect to Julie, too. Too bad he couldn't challenge _her_ to a game of pool.

* * *

A few days later, when Ryan met up with Lindsay before school, she was all jumping around, almost out of her skin. He'd never seen her so happy.

Lindsay grabbed Ryan's hand. "You won't believe this!"

Ryan had to smile. "What?"

"My Dad - Caleb - he wants to adopt me! Isn't that great?" She continued to practically jump up and down in front of him.

"Yeah. Great."

Ryan tried hard to keep his smile in place. He tried to be happy for her. He knew that she wanted this - that she'd always wanted to have a Dad. But Ryan couldn't help but be concerned. He'd seen how Caleb treated Kirsten like dirt a lot of the time. He knew that Kirsten worked hard just to get some attention from her father, just to hear that he was proud of her. But he never told her that. He knew that broke Kirsten's heart. He didn't want that for Lindsay.

But, he had to grudgingly admit that sometimes having a Dad - almost _any_ Dad - was better than no Dad at all. Sometimes. Not always. He meant it when he told Caleb that day in his office that he was better off not having a relationship with his own father. And from what Ryan knew of Caleb... well.. at least he wasn't as bad at being a father as his Dad. And he wanted Lindsay to have what she wanted. He wanted her to be happy.

"Ryan?"

Ryan turned his attention back to his girlfriend. "Yeah? Sorry... I just... What were you saying?"

"If he adopts me we will finally be, you know, like, legal. I mean now, we all _know_ that he's my Dad, but he doesn't have any parental rights."

Ryan nodded.

"Right." Ryan had to stop himself from saying that maybe that was a _good_ thing. "So, how did all this happen?"

"He asked me to come to his office after school yesterday. Kirsten was there, and Julie. He thanked me for being with him while he was recovering from his heart attack, and then he just came out and said he wanted to formally adopt me."

"Wow." Ryan wondered what Julie thought of that.

Lindsay leaned forward and kissed Ryan. "So, after school, my house? Maybe you can stay for dinner? I mean, you never get to see my Mom. I swear you see Caleb more than my Mom."

Ryan smiled. "Sounds good."

* * *

After school, Ryan and Lindsay took her car back to her house. Once there, they retreated to her bedroom and tried to work on their physics lab report, but Lindsay just couldn't stop talking about having Caleb as her _real, official father_. Ryan had to smile. Lindsay was so similar to Seth sometimes. They both, when they were excited about something, just couldn't keep from talking about it incessantly. It was a good thing that Ryan had developed some coping techniques from living with Seth for a year and a half.

When Lindsay's mother Renee got home from work, she came up to Lindsay's room. As she opened the door, she asked, "Lindsay, what do you want for dinner?" Then she saw Ryan. "Oh, Ryan, I didn't know you were coming over today."

Ryan smiled at her. "Hi, Mrs. Wheeler."

Lindsay asked, "Mom, is it OK if Ryan stays for dinner?"

Renee smiled at both Lindsay and Ryan. "Of course." She thought for a moment. "I could make spaghetti. Is that OK?"

Ryan and Lindsay both said, "Sure."

"OK. Dinner in half an hour."

"Thanks, Mom."

Renee smiled at her daughter as she left her bedroom, careful to leave the door wide open.

Lindsay looked apologetically at Ryan. "Mom has this thing about leaving the door open when a boy is in my room."

"That's OK."

Ryan wondered how often she'd had boys in her room before he came along. They hadn't talked much about their previous relationships, although of course Lindsay knew about Marissa, since they were still friends. And he had to tell her about Theresa and the baby before she heard about it from someone else.

But Ryan hadn't asked Lindsay about her history, and she hadn't offered. He wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to know.

Ryan smiled at Lindsay, then they both settled back down to try and finish their physics homework before dinner.

* * *

To be continued 


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Unholy Alliance

Summary: Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to _The O.C_. No profit is taken from this story.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Now that her Mom was home, and dinner was cooking, Lindsay managed to stop talking about her father for a little while and she and Ryan actually got some schoolwork done before her mother called them down to the kitchen.

When they got down there, Lindsay's Mom asked her, "Honey, could you set the table?"

"Sure, Mom." Lindsay headed over to the cabinet where the plates were kept.

Ryan followed her. "Let me help."

"Thanks." Lindsay handed Ryan the plates.

Ryan and Lindsay proceeded to set the table together while her Mom finished putting the last touches on their spaghetti dinner. Whenever they thought that her Mom wasn't looking, Ryan and Lindsay would smile at each other, or touch hands, or something. Lindsay thought it was a wonder that they even got the table set at all.

Once all three had settled down at the table, Lindsay didn't waste any time getting back to her current favorite subject: her adoption by her father Caleb.

Lindsay's mother interrupted her. "Lindsay, honey, are you sure you want to do this?"

Lindsay looked at her Mom, confused. "Why wouldn't I?"

"You just met Caleb. You don't even really know him yet. Isn't this rushing things a little?"

"Mom, we've known each other for a couple of months now, and I got to know him when I spent all that time over there when he was recovering, and he _is_ my father..."

Lindsay was concerned that her Mom looked a little upset. She was reassured, though, when her Mom reached over and touched her hand. "But, honey, it's always just been you and me. We have a pact, remember?"

Lindsay squeezed her Mom's hand back. "Having Caleb legally as my father isn't going to affect us. I'll still live here with you..."

Lindsay's Mom pulled her hand back and ate a bite of her dinner before she responded.

"That's another thing... If Caleb has parental rights, he'll have the right to petition for custody, or shared custody. You could end up having to live at his place half the time."

"We won't let that happen, Mom. I think I'm old enough to tell the courts what I want, right? And I want to live here with you. OK?"

She didn't look convinced, but she replied, "OK."

Seeing how uncomfortable her Mom was talking about her Dad, Lindsay decided to change the subject and actually managed to not mention Caleb once the rest of the dinner.

* * *

After dinner, and after they had helped Renee clean up, Ryan and Lindsay headed back up to her bedroom. Ryan could tell that Lindsay was upset by her mother questioning the adoption during dinner. Lindsay sat down on her bed. Ryan sat next to her and took her hand. 

"What's the matter?"

"My Mom - I don't understand why she doesn't want me to have this, to have a real father."

Ryan put his arm around Lindsay. "I think I can understand."

Lindsay gave Ryan a look that he interpreted at _you can?_

"Well, like she said, it has just been the two of you all these years. I think she's jealous of you having another parent."

"You think?"

"Yeah, I mean, she's had you all to herself. She doesn't want to share you. Think of it like a kid suddenly getting a younger brother or sister - now they have to share their parents."

Lindsay smiled. "You mean like sibling rivalry - parental rivalry?"

Ryan smiled back. "Yeah, something like that. Plus, she's made all the parental decisions about you your whole life, and I'm sure she doesn't want Caleb interfering in how she's raising you."

Lindsay nodded thoughtfully. "That makes sense."

"Everything's going to work out. Don't worry. If being adopted by Caleb is what you really want, go for it. Your Mom will come around."

"I hope so."

Ryan leaned over and gave Lindsay a kiss. "I should go. I've got a lot of homework to do and I know that I'm not going to get anything done here."

Lindsay smiled in agreement and gave him another kiss before he stood up and started packing up his school stuff.

* * *

On his way out of the Wheeler-Gardner house, Ryan passed by Renee who was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee, staring off into space. She didn't look happy. 

"Good night, Mrs. Wheeler."

Renee snapped out of her reverie. "Oh, Ryan -" Renee stood up. "Could I talk to you for a minute, in private?"

"Um... sure."

Ryan followed Renee to the living room, wondering what she would want to talk to him about.

"Is Lindsay upset?"

Ryan hesitated. He didn't like to reveal what people said to him in private. He thought that Lindsay should talk to her mother herself and tell her what she was feeling.

"Please, Ryan."

Ryan looked at Renee and decided to tell her a little bit. "Well, she just doesn't understand why you aren't in favor of the adoption. I think you should talk to her about it directly."

Renee nodded, and then looked at Ryan for a long moment, as if she was deciding to tell him something or not. She finally spoke.

"The thing is... if she goes through with it, Caleb is going to ask for a DNA test. She can't take that test."

Ryan was shocked. "What? You mean Caleb isn't really Lindsay's father?"

Renee looked sad. "No."

"So why did you tell her that he was? I don't understand. She didn't know who her father was all these years, and now she thinks Caleb is her father, and it will just be taken away from her again?"

"Ryan, I had no choice. Caleb and I were looking at going to jail."

Ryan just looked at Renee, waiting for more.

Renee sighed. "Back when I got pregnant, I thought it might be Caleb's. And he had money, so I told him that she was his. He set up the trust to be able to get money to me. When the DA found out about it and thought it was for bribing the city council, the only way to get out of that was to tell them that it was for child support."

Ryan was confused. "But wait - knowing Caleb, I can't believe that he didn't insist upon a paternity test to prove that the baby was his before he'd shell out any money."

"Well, technically, the money wasn't really for child support, it was for me, to um..."

"Pay you off to keep quiet?"

"About the affair, right."

Ryan sighed. He wasn't sure what to do with this information. It was quite a shock.

"Ryan, I was hoping... maybe you could encourage Lindsay _not_ to pursue the adoption? I know it is a lot to ask..."

"I don't know..."

Renee said quickly, "Don't decide right now. Please just think about it."

"I guess I could think about it."

"Thank you." Ryan nodded. "One more thing. Please don't tell Lindsay or Caleb about this. Please."

Ryan nodded again. He wasn't going to tell anybody anything right now. He had a lot of thinking to do.

* * *

To be continued 


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Unholy Alliance

Summary: Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to _The O.C_. No profit is taken from this story.

Author's Notes: Julie finally appears in this chapter! Yay!

* * *

**Chapter 3**

After Ryan got home, he headed out to the pool house and tried to settle down and get his homework done, but he couldn't concentrate. There was too much on his mind. Lindsay's mother's news about Caleb was quite a shock. Ryan had just gotten used to the idea of Caleb being Lindsay's father. And he had just gotten Caleb to be hopefully at least civil to him when they were around each other. Now, it turned out that Caleb wasn't Lindsay's father after all. Ryan needed some time to get his head around that.

And Ryan had to decide what to do about it.

Ryan lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling to think, his school books lying on the bed unused around him.

Ryan figured that there were several ways that this could go.

One: Lindsay could be convinced by her mother and/or Ryan _not_ to pursue the adoption by Caleb. In that case, things would keep going the way they had been. Lindsay would continue her daughter-father relationship with Caleb, but it would be unofficial and he wouldn't have any say in where she lived, or her medical care, etc. The upside of that would be that Lindsay would continue to have a father in her life, like she always wanted. The downside was that the father would be Caleb Nichol. Ryan would have to see him a lot, and Caleb could hurt Lindsay like he had hurt Kirsten over the years.

Two: Lindsay and Caleb could pursue the adoption process, and have the paternity test, and have it be revealed that Caleb was not really her father after all. The upside of this scenario was that Caleb would now be out of Lindsay's life. The downside was that Lindsay would no longer have a father, and she would know that her mother lied to her, again. Not to mention that Lindsay would also lose the sister that she was just getting to know - Kirsten.

Ryan figured that there was also an outside shot of a third scenario. The adoption process went forward, and either there was no paternity test, or Renee was wrong and Lindsay _was_ Caleb's daughter after all, or even that someone was able to rig the paternity test to show that Lindsay was Caleb's daughter even though she wasn't really. In this case, the adoption would go through and Lindsay would be legally Caleb's daughter.

Ryan dismissed scenario three as being too unlikely and concentrated on the first two. He had to decide which scenario he wanted, and what course of action he was going to take to try to make it happen. After going through several possibilities, he decided what he was going to do. The deciding factor was Caleb Nichol himself. Everyone agreed, he was not a good guy. It was one thing to put up with him if he really _was_ Lindsay's father, and quite another if he was _not_ her father.

So Ryan decided to not do what Renee asked of him. He decided to encourage Lindsay to pursue the adoption, knowing that the truth would come out. Of course, Ryan knew that Lindsay would be upset when that happened, but he hoped that she would get over it pretty quickly, and would forgive her mother for lying to her eventually. Although Ryan knew that if he went this way, he'd have to lie to Lindsay also. He couldn't tell her that his real purpose in supporting her about the adoption was to get her away from Caleb. He would have to pretend to be doing it because it would bring her closer to Caleb.

Ryan already felt guilty just thinking about it. But he remembered something that Sandy said once: that sometimes to be a good Dad, you had to be a bad guy. In this case, Ryan felt that to be a good boyfriend - a good _friend_ - he would have to be a bad guy.

Ryan was concerned that there was one wildcard factor in all this, though: Julie Cooper. He knew, from Marissa, that she didn't want Caleb and Lindsay to have a father-daughter relationship. Well, what do you know, something that she and Ryan had in common. Unfortunately, that meant that Julie would oppose the adoption process. And, knowing Julie, she wouldn't do it openly for fear of alienating Caleb. No, she'd try to sabotage it behind the scenes in some underhanded way.

Ryan had to stop Julie from doing that somehow. The only way he could think of was to talk to her, and tell her what Renee told him. Somehow try to convince her to let the adoption process go through, and by doing that they'd both get what they wanted.

Ryan sat up in bed and grabbed the phone. He knew Julie's cell phone number from when he and Marissa dated last year. He dialed it.

"Hello. Who is this?" Ryan had to smile. Julie really knew how to answer the phone.

"Um... It's Ryan."

"Ryan? Why the hell are you calling me?" And she had such good phone etiquette.

"We need to talk. Not on the phone."

Julie's voice softened. "Is this about Marissa? Is she in trouble again?"

"No, it isn't about Marissa. It's about... OK, we can't do this on the phone. Can we meet? Somewhere that we won't be seen together."

"Ryan? What are you talking about? I'm not going to meet with you in secret."

Ryan kept trying. He wasn't about to give up now. "It's important. Something that you should know about. It will be worth your time, I promise."

Julie gave an exaggerated sigh. "OK, fine. Not tonight. Meet me tomorrow morning before school at the pier. Don't be late."

Then she hung up on him. Ryan had to smile as he hung up his own phone. It was always an adventure trying to talk to either Julie or Caleb.

Now that that was settled, Ryan found that he could get back to his homework, but now it was really late and he still had a lot of work to do. He was still awake and working on his school work when there was a knock on the pool house door.

"Come in."

Kirsten opened the door and stuck her head in. "Ryan, it's almost midnight. Are you going to bed soon?"

Ryan gestured at all the school books on his bed. "I still have work to do."

"Well, don't stay up too late. You need your sleep."

Ryan smiled at Kirsten's mothering. "I won't. Thanks."

"Good night."

"Night."

Kirsten left, and Ryan tried to finish his homework quickly so he could get to bed. He had to get up early in the morning and face yet another Nichol.

* * *

To be continued 


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Unholy Alliance

Summary: Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to _The O.C_. No profit is taken from this story.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

The next morning, Ryan got up early so that he could head out and meet up with Julie Cooper at the pier before school. He was up so early, in fact, that none of Kirsten, Sandy, or Seth was up yet. He didn't want to just leave without letting them know he was going. He didn't want them to worry that he'd taken off or anything like that. But he also didn't want them to know what he was really doing. So he left a note on the kitchen island saying that he left for school early. He hoped that was good enough.

Ryan headed out on his bike for the pier, trying to figure out what to say to Julie to talk her into being with him on this. He knew that she didn't exactly consider him to be a reliable source, so he needed something to convince her that he was telling the truth.

When Ryan arrived at the pier, Julie was already there - drinking some way-too-expensive coffee, huddled against the early morning cold in her designer jacket, leaning against the pier railing.

"You're late. Now, what's this all about?"

Ryan took a deep breath. "You know about Caleb wanting to adopt Lindsay?"

"Yes. What's it to you?"

Ryan started to pace around. This wasn't going to be easy. "OK, look, I know we haven't exactly agreed on much of anything in the past, but I think we both agree on this." Ryan stopped and looked Julie straight in the eye. "Neither of us want Caleb in Lindsay's life, or vice-versa."

Julie looked at Ryan coldly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Ryan gave Julie a brief bark of laughter, indicating his disbelief. "Come on. Please. Lindsay's told me how you treat her, and I've seen it myself. You don't want her there. I can guess why. Do you want me to spell it out?"

Ryan carefully avoided telling Julie that he got his information primarily from Marissa. He didn't want her to get any more angry at Marissa than she already did for other things. He didn't want her to know that Marissa was telling Julie's secrets to Ryan.

Julie just glared at Ryan.

Ryan gestured around at the empty pier. "It's just you and me here."

"OK, fine, I don't want her there. What about you? Why don't you want Lindsay to have Caleb as her father?"

Ryan looked at Julie in disbelief. "Haven't you noticed? Caleb hates me. I hate him. He's not a good guy. And he's like the worst father ever."

Julie nodded and shrugged, indicating that she accepted Ryan's reasons. "So what are you suggesting? That we team up to stop this adoption?"

Ryan looked away and started pacing again. "Um... Actually, it's more complicated than that."

Julie mumbled to herself, "Isn't it always."

"Um... I have it on good authority that Lindsay isn't really Caleb's daughter. So if the adoption process goes forward, and there is a paternity test, it will prove that they aren't related and Caleb will be out of Lindsay's life, and vice-versa."

Julie raised her voice and put out her hand. "Whoa, Ryan, stop." Ryan stopped pacing. "You know that Lindsay isn't Caleb's daughter? How do you know?"

Ryan looked down and shuffled his feet uncomfortably. "I can't tell you. You have to trust me."

Julie gave a little snort, indicating her attitude towards that suggestion. Ryan looked up a her. She just looked at him with raised eyebrows.

Ryan sighed. He was hoping to avoid this, but he wasn't surprised that if he wanted her help, he'd have to spill. "OK, you can't tell anybody this..."

Ryan waited for Julie to indicate her agreement. Once she did, Ryan continued. "Lindsay's mother told me."

Julie looked at Ryan skeptically. "OK, you're going to have to explain that one."

Ryan took another deep breath. "She told Caleb way back when that Lindsay was his daughter in order to get child support money from him. You can understand that."

Julie gave Ryan a look.

He continued. "Later she found out or figured out that Lindsay wasn't his daughter after all, but she didn't tell him. So when this whole indictment thing came up, she was trapped. She had to tell Lindsay and everyone that Caleb was Lindsay's father to get out of their trouble with the law. Now she doesn't want it to come out that Caleb isn't really Lindsay's father."

"Of course not. So why did she tell _you_ all this?"

"She wants me to convince Lindsay not to go through with the adoption."

Julie nodded. "Right. But that's not what you're going to do."

It wasn't a question. Ryan just looked at her.

Julie continued, "So let me get this straight. You want to team up with me and both of us push for this adoption and push for a paternity test so that it can be exposed that Caleb isn't Lindsay's father so that she's out of his life, and vice versa."

"Right."

Julie looked at Ryan with some appreciation. "Wow, Ryan. I didn't know you had it in you to be so devious."

Ryan gave her a look. "Are you with me on this or not?"

"I'll think about it. Goodbye, Ryan. Get to school."

And with that, Julie walked away from Ryan without looking back. He watched her get into her car and drive away.

Ryan sighed and headed over to where he had parked his bike. There was not much more that he could do. He took his shot and now he had to wait and see how she was going to play this, and how things would play out.

When Ryan got to his bike, he picked up his book bag and threw it over his shoulder. Then he got on his bike and started to head for the road. He was so lost in thought about this whole situation that he found himself in, that he wasn't really paying attention to anything around him. That is, until he heard his name being called.

"Ryan!"

Ryan turned to look and when he saw who it was, he stopped his bike immediately. It was Sandy. Ryan took a deep breath. He had forgotten that Sandy's new office was right nearby here, and even if he had remembered, he wouldn't have thought that Sandy would be going to his office this early. Ryan waited while Sandy walked over.

Sandy looked a little angry. "Ryan, what are you doing here? Your note said that you went to school early."

Just great. Caught in another lie to Kirsten and Sandy. How was he going to get out of this one?

* * *

To be continued 


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Unholy Alliance

Summary: Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to _The O.C_. No profit is taken from this story.

* * *

**Chapter 5**

When Sandy saw Ryan riding his bike at the pier early that morning when he was on his way to his new beachfront office, he was surprised and yet not so surprised.

Sandy had gotten up early that morning to get a head start on Rebecca's case. To tell the truth, he also wanted to avoid seeing Kirsten, since there was still some tension between them over the whole Rebecca thing. Sandy didn't expect that any of the rest of the family would be up yet, so he was surprised to find a note in Ryan's handwriting in the kitchen which read

_Left early for school._

_Ryan_

Sandy was suspicious right away. That was pretty much the same thing that Ryan had said last month when he lied to (unsuccessfully) cover for Seth being out all night at his girlfriend's. You would think that if a lie didn't work once, when you needed another one, you'd use something different. So Sandy's first instinct would be to think that it must be the truth. But then again, Sandy had to take into account that Ryan was horrible at lying, so he really could be using the same lie twice, even though it didn't work the first time.

When Sandy saw Ryan at the pier, his suspicions were confirmed that it was a lie. Another one. What was up with this kid? He never used to lie to Sandy. Well, except for the whole Oliver fiasco, which Sandy didn't want to think about. This time, this was, what, the third lie in two months? Sandy was determined to get to the bottom of this.

"Ryan!"

Sandy saw Ryan look over at him and quickly stop his bike. Sandy smiled to himself. At least Ryan didn't take one look at him and head off in the other direction. Not that he'd expect Ryan to do such a thing. It wasn't his style. Sandy did, however, see Ryan tense up and get this really guilty look on his face as he waited for Sandy to walk over. If Sandy hadn't known already that Ryan was up to something, he could have easily figured it out just by looking at him.

Sandy stopped in front of Ryan's bike. "Ryan, what are you doing here? Your note said that you went to school early."

Ryan looked nervously at his watch. "Um... I'm going. Right now. I have like two minutes before I'm late."

Ryan started to move his bike like he was planning to take off. Sandy grabbed the handlebars.

"Well, then, I have two minutes... I asked you what you're doing here."

Sandy watched with some amusement for a few moments as Ryan obviously tried, unsuccessfully, to come up with a plausible lie. He finally decided to put Ryan out of his misery.

"Don't even try it. First, you're a terrible liar. Second, when I came up here you had guilt written all over your face. Obviously you're up to something."

That got Ryan's attention. He raised his eyebrows, and blinked his eyes a few times, then looked down, uncomfortable.

"Were you out all night? _Left early for school_ is what you said when Seth snuck out to see Alex."

Ryan looked Sandy straight in the eye. "No. No. I just got up early. Ask Kirsten, she saw me late last night, around midnight."

"You could have snuck out after that."

"I didn't." Ryan checked his watch. "I left the house about a hour ago."

"To do _what_?"

In response, Ryan just looked down and away. Obviously, he had no intention of answering. Sandy was worried. It better _not_ be the Oliver thing all over again.

"Ryan, come on."

Ryan took a deep breath. "I came here to meet someone."

Well, that really explained everything. "Who? Why?"

More silence. Sandy was quickly getting tired of this routine.

"_Please_ tell me at least that you aren't doing something illegal, something that would jeopardize your probation or get you taken away from us."

Ryan quickly jumped in. "No! No, of course not. Nothing like that."

"Thank god." Sandy waited until Ryan looked at him. "So then what _are_ you doing?"

Ryan looked away again. This time, Sandy was determined to wait Ryan out. After a long silence, Ryan checked his watch and said quietly, "If I don't leave now, I'm going to be late for school."

Sandy sighed in frustration. "All right, fine, go to school. I don't want to make you late. But I want you home straight after school, and we're going to talk about this again tonight. If I don't get any answers then, I'm going to have to assume that you're up to no good, and I'm going to have to ground you."

Ryan looked at Sandy, clearly frustrated himself. "Aren't I innocent until proven guilty? Don't I have the right to remain silent?"

Sandy had to chuckle at that. "That's only with the police, not your parents." He stepped away from Ryan's bike and gestured in the direction of the road. "Go ahead. Go to school."

Ryan gave Sandy a strange look and then took off on his bike.

Sandy called after him. "I want you to go home directly after school!"

Ryan called back over his shoulder. "OK!"

It was only after Ryan was gone that Sandy realized that he had referred to Kirsten and himself as Ryan's _parents_. No wonder Ryan gave him a strange look. He hadn't meant to do that, it just kind of slipped out. He and Kirsten had gotten into the habit of talking about both Seth and Ryan, as a unit, using the normal "parent" and "child" terms. But Sandy at least had been careful to not say it in front of Ryan. Well, that cat was out of the bag now. Sandy just hoped that Ryan thought it was a _good_ thing that Sandy and Kirsten thought of themselves as his parents.

Sandy sighed and headed in the direction of his office. He intended to try to put the Ryan problem out of his mind so he could get some work done.

* * *

To be continued 


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Unholy Alliance

Summary: Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to _The O.C_. No profit is taken from this story.

* * *

**Chapter 6**

On the way to school, Ryan had a lot to think about. It had been an unexpectedly busy morning. And school hadn't even started yet. So Ryan put his bicycle riding on auto-pilot and sorted through everything.

First, there was the fact that Sandy referred to himself and Kirsten as Ryan's _parents_. That was... somewhat unexpected, although not totally a surprise. They had all been moving in that direction ever since Ryan returned to Newport after his summer in Chino. Ryan himself said that Kirsten was like his mother.

And Sandy referred to him and Seth as "my kids" at the 20th anniversary party. Neither Sandy nor Kirsten had said "my kids" before. Oh, sure, they'd said "_the_ kids" or "_the_ boys", but that was not the same thing as "_my_ kids". Although "my _kids_" did not have the same ... what ... permanence? tight connection? ... as "my _sons_" would have. Well, one step at a time. And today was another one.

And then there was the rest of the conversation with Sandy. It was times like these that not being able to lie convincingly really was a pain in the neck. But Ryan supposed it didn't matter anyway if he gave everything away by looking guilty, as Sandy said he did. It made sense, though, since he _felt_ guilty that he should _look_ guilty. He didn't want to worry Sandy, but he couldn't tell him what he was really up to.

Even so, Ryan nearly told Sandy that he was there to meet with Julie Cooper, but that wouldn't have answered any of Sandy's questions and would have just brought up a whole host of others, since he and Julie weren't exactly buddies who met before school for coffee and a chat all the time.

And finally there was the whole thing about being grounded if he didn't talk. That was going to be fun. Although, he'd already set the ball in motion by talking to Julie, and he'd still see Lindsay at school, so it wouldn't really hurt his plans if he _was_ grounded. Ryan kind of felt like he deserved to be grounded, anyway, not for what Sandy thought he might be doing, but for what he really _was_ doing - betraying his girlfriend's trust by lying to her and going behind her back. Although that wasn't going to stop him from doing it.

Which reminded Ryan of what Julie said about him being devious. He never considered himself _devious_. Although if he thought about it, it should be a big, honkin' clue that he just proposed an unholy alliance with the devil herself, the evil Julie Cooper-Nichol, that maybe he was a little devious.

Ryan sighed and tried to push all of that out of his mind for a while and focus on getting to school on time.

* * *

That evening, Ryan was in the pool house doing his homework when there was a knock on the door. All the shades were down and for once, the person didn't come striding in immediately after knocking, so Ryan called out, "Come in." 

The door opened and Lindsay stepped in, and behind her was Kirsten. Kirsten stopped right outside the doorway.

"OK, guys, five minutes, and no ..." She gestured up and down at the bed. "... on the bed."

Ryan gave her a little embarrassed smile. "Right."

Lindsay turned towards Kirsten. "Thanks, Kirsten."

Kirsten nodded and left, closing the door behind her. Ryan got up and met Lindsay halfway to the door and they kissed, a few times, until Lindsay broke it off.

"So, this is you, grounded, again. Wow, you sure do get grounded a lot."

Ryan shook his head slightly. "Not really. This is... well, getting grounded two months in a row - I don't think that's ever happened before."

"What are you grounded for this time?"

Ryan stepped back and turned away from Lindsay. There was no way that he could tell her the truth about why he was grounded. Not the real reason, anyway. But maybe he could tell her something. He was trying to figure out what to say when she prompted.

"Ryan?"

Ryan turned to look at Lindsay. "Um... for, um, lying to them and keeping secrets from them."

Lindsay scowled a little bit. "About what?"

"Lindsay..." Ryan looked away from her. He couldn't look her straight in the eyes.

"Sorry, none of my business." She sounded a little hurt. "That's between you and your parents... or... I mean, your, um, Sandy and Kirsten." She cleared her throat. "So, um, how long are you grounded for this time?"

Ryan had to smile a bit at that question. After Sandy had tried to question him in the kitchen after dinner, and he still didn't tell him what he was up to, Sandy told him he was grounded until he _did_ talk. On his way out to the pool house to start "serving time", he overheard Kirsten in the kitchen saying to Sandy,

_"You know you've just grounded him forever, right?"_

That gave Ryan a chuckle, but he hoped that it wouldn't be _that_ long. He hoped they could work _something_ out.

So Ryan told Lindsay. "I'm not sure. It depends."

Lindsay nodded. Ryan really wanted to change the subject now, so he cleared his throat. "So... how did things go with your mother?"

Lindsay was supposed to talk to her mother about the whole Caleb adoption thing over dinner. That was why she came over in the first place, to tell Ryan how it went.

Lindsay sat down on the bed and Ryan sat next to her. Lindsay sighed. "Not great. She's still opposed to the idea, but she won't give me any good reason why."

Ryan took Lindsay's hand. "I'm sorry."

"She kept telling me to think long and hard if this is really the right thing. She said I need to look at all the angles before I make up my mind. But in the end she told me that she won't stop me if this is what I decide I really want after all that."

Ryan gave Lindsay a reassuring smile. "That's good, right?"

Lindsay tried to smile back. "Yeah, I guess." Then she put her head down.

Ryan reached over and put his hand on her jaw, then leaned over and kissed her. "Things will work out, you'll see."

* * *

To be continued 


	7. Chapter 7

Title: Unholy Alliance

Summary: Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to _The O.C_. No profit is taken from this story.

* * *

**Chapter 7**

It was yet another Friday-night catered party at the Cohens'. Ryan didn't know what this one was for. He didn't ask. He had stopped asking some time ago. It didn't matter what the parties were for - they were all the same. The same people came. They ate the free food and drank the free booze and gossiped about each other. The parties were all boring.

Ryan settled himself down at an empty caterer's table in the far corner of the back yard and watched Lindsay hanging out with her ... with Caleb. It was nice to see her outside of school for the first time in a couple of days. Kirsten and Sandy had taken pity on him and eased up on his grounding during the party. He still wasn't allowed to go out, but he was free to hang out with his friends and play video games and watch TV.

Although there weren't too many friends to hang out with. Of course Seth was there, but he was always there, and Lindsay was there, which was nice. Marissa didn't like coming to these parties any more than Ryan did, so she skipped out on it tonight and was off somewhere with Alex. And Summer and Zach were still pissed off at Seth for how he acted on their trip to San Diego to meet with the comic book company executive, so they wanted nothing to do with any Cohen-related function.

So tonight Ryan generally hung out with Lindsay, but unfortunately she was spending more time with Caleb than with Ryan. Despite the fact that Ryan won the bet with Caleb, and Caleb was no longer explicitly insulting him all the time, he was still far from welcoming. Ryan would still rather not be around him if he could help it. For tonight, not being around Caleb also meant not being around Lindsay.

Ryan settled back in his chair and sighed. Well, it couldn't be helped.

In fact, right now, Caleb had gathered his family around him - his daughters Kirsten and Lindsay and his grandson Seth. He was showing them off to a group of people whom Ryan didn't know. Of course for Caleb, only his blood relatives counted as "real" family - so that excluded Ryan, Sandy, and even Julie.

Julie - It had been a couple of days since their little chat at the pier and Ryan hadn't heard from her, not that he'd expected to. But tonight since they were in the same place at the same time, he hoped to talk to her. Ryan wanted to know at least if she had made up her mind if she was going to go along with his plan. He needed to know soon because things were continuing to move forward on the Caleb-adopting-Lindsay front.

Ryan had spent the last couple of days at school talking with Lindsay about it. It was all she wanted to talk about. Ryan tried to gently encourage her towards the adoption, without being suspiciously pushy. But her mother was still adamantly against it, and had even convinced Lindsay to stay away from Caleb for a couple of days so that she could think about it without any undue pressure from him, while she herself was kind of pressuring Lindsay to refuse.

And then when Lindsay found out that there would be a paternity test involved, she was more upset about it than Ryan would have expected. He tried to calm her down and talk like it was no big deal and reassure her that it was nothing to worry about. Ryan wasn't sure if he'd been entirely successful in allaying her fears about it. The result of all this was that Lindsay seemed to have lost the enthusiasm that she had for the adoption when Caleb first proposed it. As far as Ryan could tell, she was now on the fence and it could go either way.

So Ryan really needed to know right away if Julie was in or out. If she was out, he would need to adjust his plans accordingly. But he hadn't been able to catch her eye all evening. It was like she was avoiding him. Which was why he was somewhat surprised when she strolled casually by the table he was sitting at, and walked behind him. She barely slowed down as she passed by, and spoke so quietly that he barely heard her.

"Guest room. Five minutes."

Ryan had to shake is head in amazement when she didn't even wait to see if he heard her or agreed to meet her. Now that was confidence.

Ryan watched her out of the corner of his eye walk slowly down the steps and into the living room, in the direction of the stairs. Ryan checked his watch and impatiently waited the five minutes that Julie asked for before he himself got up and tried to act casual as he headed for the stairs. Luckily, it didn't look like anyone was paying any attention to him.

When he got upstairs, he headed right for the guest room. He paused with his hand on the doorknob of the closed door. An image flashed through his head of a lingerie-clad Julie lying sexily on the bed, waiting for her secret lover - oh, say _Luke_ - to come up and have a clandestine rendezvous with her in the guest room of a house with a party going on downstairs. Ryan had to shake his head to clear it. Now that was just _disturbing_.

Ryan took a deep breath and opened the door. He found himself somewhat relieved to find a fully clothed Julie standing in the middle of the room, looking quite annoyed and not in the least sexy.

"Shut the door."

Ryan closed the door quietly behind him and entered the room. He faced Julie and waited to see what she had to say.

"OK, I'm only going to say this once. I'm in. Now there is no reason for us to meet again or to even talk. You work your end with Lindsay and I work my end with Caleb. Is that clear?"

"Yeah, clear."

"Kirsten told me you were grounded. Is it because of this?"

"No. Well... yes, kind of."

"You didn't tell -"

"No! No, of course not. Actually, it's because I wouldn't tell them what I'm up to that I'm grounded."

"Good. I'm glad to hear that you can keep a secret."

Ryan raised his eyebrows. "You know that I can keep a secret."

Julie actually had the good grace to look a little embarrassed at that. "OK. Good. Well, I'm going back to the party. You stay up here for a few minutes."

And with that, and without waiting for a reply, again, Julie walked past Ryan and out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Ryan was relieved to hear that his plan was going forward. Fingers crossed, hopefully, this would work.

* * *

To be continued 


	8. Chapter 8

Title: Unholy Alliance

Summary: Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to _The O.C_. No profit is taken from this story.

Author's Notes: Parts of the rest of this story are based on spoilers and previews for episode 2.14, _The Rainy Day Women_.

* * *

**Chapter 8**

After Julie left, Ryan sat down on the bed in the guest room to wait until it was safe to go downstairs without it being obvious that he and Julie had been upstairs together. It was nice to be away from the party. Ryan had been thinking for a while about retreating into the pool house. But being in the back yard like it was, it was surrounded by partygoers, and even if he put down all the shades to get a little privacy, it still wasn't quiet what with all the talking and music going on around him. Up here, it was quiet. Well, not entirely - Ryan could still hear the party going on downstairs and outside, but it was muted. It was nice. Ryan decided to not go back to the party at all, and just stay up here, especially since it looked like Lindsay would be busy with Caleb for a while.

Ryan looked around. He'd never spent much time in the guest room. There was never any reason to. It was a nice room, but there wasn't anything to do in here. So Ryan got up and headed down the hallway to Seth's room. There was lots of stuff to do in there. Comic books and other books to read, like Seth's favorite books _Kavalier and Clay_ and _On the Road. _Plus Seth had a TV that Ryan could watch and a computer that Ryan could use to surf the net or play games on. Ryan grabbed the TV remote and settled down on Seth's bed. He turned on the TV and started flipping through channels. After a while, Ryan turned it off, not finding anything he wanted to watch. As Sandy liked to say: _500 channels and nothing on_.

So Ryan got up, put the TV remote away, sat down at Seth's desk, and turned on his computer. After surfing the net for a while, and reading a little fan fiction for _The Valley_, Ryan settled down to play some games that Seth had on there. And that was what Ryan was doing when Seth found him there a short time later.

"Here you are." Ryan turned his head to see Seth striding into his bedroom. "When I couldn't find you in the pool house, I figured you'd be up here."

Ryan smiled. "Hey. How did you know I didn't take off like you did from Marissa's father's going away party?"

Seth smiled back. "No way, dude. I know you too well. You'd never do that. You'd never disobey my parents like that when you were grounded."

Ryan raised his eyebrows a little and shrugged his shoulders. Seth apparently didn't remember his two excursions out of the house when he was grounded during the Oliver incident. Or maybe Seth was just blocking that whole time period out of his mind.

Ryan gestured at the computer. "Do you mind?"

Seth shook his head and gestured with his hands indicating that he didn't mind that Ryan was using his computer.

"So I guess Caleb is done with you and Lindsay and your Mom?"

"He's done with me and my Mom. He's doing something now with Lindsay. I got out of there while the getting was good."

Ryan nodded, then gestured at the computer game. "Wanna play?"

"Sure."

Seth pulled up the other chair and sat down next to Ryan at the desk. Ryan restarted the game in 2-player mode and the competition was on.

* * *

"I thought I'd find you guys up here." 

There was the sounds of a player crashing and burning. Ryan smiled.

"Dad..." Seth whined. "You made me lose."

"Sorry." Sandy turned to Ryan. "Lindsay is looking for you. She's about to head home."

"Thanks."

Ryan jumped up and hurried out of Seth's bedroom. Sandy patted him on the back as he went past him, and Ryan gave him a smile in return. Ryan hurried down the hallway and then down the steps to catch up with Lindsay before she left. He hadn't intended to leave her alone at the party for so long, but he and Seth had gotten caught up in their game, especially since they hadn't been allowed to play for a few days.

Ryan spotted Lindsay by the front door and called to her as he finished going down the stairs. "Lindsay!"

Lindsay turned towards him. "There you are."

Ryan stopped in front of her, put his hand on her shoulder, and leaned over to kiss her.

"Sorry for leaving you alone. You were busy with Caleb, and Seth and I got into this game... you know how it is."

He gave her a little _forgive me_ smile. Lindsay smiled back.

"So, you're going home?"

"Yeah. Walk me out?"

"Of course."

Ryan went over to open the front door for her like a gentleman and put his hand on the small of her back as he ushered her outside. Once they were outside, he took her hand. When they got to her car, Lindsay stopped and turned towards Ryan.

"Um... I have some news."

"Yeah? About Caleb?" It was a reasonable guess since she'd just spent most of the evening with him.

"Yeah. Um... I've made up my mind. I told him tonight that I want to go ahead with the adoption."

Ryan raised his eyebrows and nodded thoughtfully. "That's great."

Ryan was a little surprised since he thought she was a little ways away from making up her mind, but he was glad she decided to go through with it. It looked like his plan was working.

"Yeah, yeah, it is. So my Dad's going to go ahead and schedule the paternity test."

Lindsay still looked a little uncertain about it, so Ryan reached out and put his arms around her. "You want me to go with you?"

Lindsay took a deep breath and smiled at Ryan. "That would be so great. Thanks."

Ryan smiled back and leaned in for a kiss. "Don't worry. Everything is going to be fine. Um... Have you told your mother yet?"

Lindsay looked away. She looked a little sad. "No, not yet. I'll tell her when I get home. She's not going to like this." Lindsay looked back at Ryan. "I'm glad at least you are supporting me on this."

Ryan smiled at her and gave her one last kiss before letting her go. He watched her get into her car and drive away. Ryan sighed and headed back into the house. He was feeling a little bit guilty. Outwardly he was supporting her, but he knew that inwardly he was really betraying her. He just hoped that it was worth it.

* * *

To be continued 


	9. Chapter 9

Title: Unholy Alliance

Summary: Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to _The O.C_. No profit is taken from this story.

* * *

**Chapter 9**

After seeing Lindsay off, Ryan went back into the house and headed back upstairs. When he was halfway up the stairs, he heard, "Ryan?"

Ryan stopped. He recognized the voice. It was Caleb. Ryan turned around to face him. Great, and Julie too. The gruesome twosome.

"Have you seen Lindsay?"

Ryan gestured towards the front door. "She just left."

Caleb looked towards the front door.

"Oh." He sounded disappointed. He looked back at Ryan. "I had to talk to her. Well, I guess I could call her."

"Um... Congratulations, by the way." Ryan hoped that Caleb didn't notice when he said that, that he was looking more at Julie than at him.

"She told you about the adoption?"

"Yeah." Ryan looked more directly at Julie. "And the paternity test."

Julie looked straight back at Ryan. Her face didn't give anything away. "Ryan, we don't have to tell you to keep this quiet, do we?"

Caleb added, "For now, anyway. Until we're sure..."

Ryan said quickly, "Yeah. Don't worry."

Caleb nodded at Ryan, then turned to Julie. "Juju?"

Julie gave Ryan one last glare, and then the two of them moved off.

Ryan sighed. Well, that was fun. Ryan turned and continued up the stairs to Seth's room. When he got there, he found that the room was empty and the computer was turned off. Well, that was OK. Seth must have gone back to the party, and their game was over anyway. Ryan's interest was caught by the cordless phone. It occurred to him that he should talk to Lindsay's mother before Lindsay got home. He went over and picked up the phone and headed down the hallway to the guest room. There would be more privacy there and less chance of someone - Seth - walking in while he was on the phone. Ryan went in, shut the door, and sat down on the bed. He dialed Lindsay's number.

"Hello?"

"Ms. Wheeler? It's Ryan."

"Oh, Ryan. Lindsay's not here... Wait... Isn't she over there with you?"

"She was. She just left." Ryan took a deep breath. "Um... I wanted to tell you... give you a heads-up... before Lindsay got home. Lindsay... she told Caleb tonight that she's decided to go ahead with the adoption."

"Oh." Renee sounded upset. Ryan could imagine that she just sat down hard in a chair or something.

"Yeah. And they're going ahead with the paternity test, too."

Renee didn't say anything. Ryan could understand that. She was probably pretty speechless.

After a moment, Ryan continued, "So, yeah, I was wondering what you were going to do. I mean... Are you going to tell Lindsay the truth?"

It had been bothering Ryan for a while that Lindsay's mother might end up telling Lindsay the truth. Which would probably cause Lindsay to not go ahead with the adoption, which would spoil all of Ryan's plans. Ryan figured that maybe Renee would use it as a last resort to keep the adoption from proceeding.

"No, Ryan, I can't tell her the truth. If I do that, then she'll know that I've been lying to her - again. She'll never forgive me."

"Ah. And if she finds out through the paternity test-"

"Then she could continue to believe that I really thought Caleb was her father, and I wasn't lying to her, I was just wrong."

"Mmm."

Yeah, Ryan could understand that. And that fell in line with what Ryan wanted, so... good.

"Oh, Ryan, that sounds like Lindsay. I have to go. Thanks for calling me."

"You're welcome. Good luck."

* * *

After the party was over, Sandy went looking for Ryan and found him in the pool house. After knocking and being told to come in, Sandy went in and shut the door. He sat down in the chair at the foot of the bed, and as he did so, he gestured at the end of the bed and addressed Ryan.

"Ryan, can we sit?"

Ryan looked a little uncertain, or maybe just tired of having these little talks with Sandy, but he came over and sat at the end of the bed facing Sandy anyway.

"Have a good time tonight?"

Ryan just gave Sandy a look like _are you kidding me_?

Sandy smiled. "I don't mean at the party. I know how boring these things are. I meant hanging out with Lindsay, playing games with Seth..."

Ryan raised his eyebrows and said, jokingly, "Trying to rub it in?" But then he got more serious. "No, really. Yeah, I did. Thanks."

Sandy wanted to try this again. "I don't suppose you're ready to talk to me yet?"

Ryan looked down and away from Sandy. Sandy sighed. Of course not.

"OK, just... can you tell me this... Is there _any_ chance that you're ever going to tell me what's going on? I mean, I don't want this to be like what happened with Oliver. I've spent a lot of time thinking about how I handled that and I know I handled it badly. I know now that you were talking to me at first and stopped because I wasn't listening."

That got Ryan's attention. He quickly looked up at Sandy. It looked like he was a little surprised. Pleasantly surprised. Which confirmed to Sandy that his analysis of the Oliver incident was correct. He wasn't entirely sure until now. Sandy was glad that he finally spoke to Ryan about it.

"This... situation ... it isn't like that."

Sandy nodded. "Good. I'll have to trust you on that since you're the only one who really knows what happened back then, and you're the only one who knows what's going on now. So... any chance ?"

Ryan looked thoughtful. "You know... I've kind of been thinking about that."

That sounded promising. Sandy tried to not get his hopes up too much. "Yeah?"

"Maybe... maybe after it's all over."

"After _what's_ all over?"

Ryan just looked at Sandy. Sandy didn't really expect him to answer that anyway.

"OK, well, can you at least tell me how long it might be?"

Ryan shrugged a little. "I don't know."

"Ballpark. You know, hours, days, weeks, months, years... ?"

Ryan thought for a moment. "I guess... I guess I'd say somewhere between like several days and several weeks?"

Sandy nodded.

"OK, kid, I have a deal for you..." Ryan looked interested, so Sandy continued. "If you promise me that when whatever-it-is is all over that you'll tell me what's been going on, I'll lift your punishment. You wouldn't be grounded any more."

Ryan looked away and appeared to be thinking about it for a few moments. Sandy waited patiently. At least Ryan didn't reject the deal right off.

Ryan looked back at Sandy. "If I tell you, you won't tell anybody else?"

"Kirsten?"

Ryan hesitated for a second. "Yeah, I guess that's OK. But Kirsten and nobody else."

Sandy nodded. He could live with that. "OK. Deal."

Ryan gave Sandy a little smile. "So, like, I'm not grounded, starting _now_?"

"Yes, but it's too late to go out tonight."

"I was just going to call Lindsay to give her the good news."

Sandy smiled and stood up. "OK, then, I'll leave you to it."

Ryan smiled back and nodded, then reached for the phone. Sandy took that as his cue to get out.

Once Sandy was outside the pool house, he smiled to himself. That went pretty well. He headed into the house to tell Kirsten about his deal with Ryan.

After he told her, Kirsten looked amused. "See, I told you that you were just a big softy inside. A big fluffy bunny. A marshmallow."

Sandy smiled and put his arms around his wife. "Hey, you're the one who said that grounding Ryan wouldn't work to get him to talk. I'm just a little slow at catching on."

Kirsten leaned forward and kissed him. As Sandy kissed her back, he was glad that he and Kirsten had worked out their differences about the Rebecca thing now that she was out of town.

* * *

To be continued 


	10. Chapter 10

Title: Unholy Alliance

Summary: Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to _The O.C_. No profit is taken from this story.

Author's Notes: Christina: No, Ryan didn't tell Sandy what was going on in chapter 9. Ryan and Sandy made a deal. Ryan promised to tell Sandy later, and that's why Ryan wasn't grounded any more.

* * *

**Chapter 10**

After Sandy left, Ryan sat on the bed for a moment playing with the cordless phone in his hand. Ryan smiled to himself. He knew that Sandy wouldn't let him stay grounded for too long. It just wasn't in him. Ryan could tell that he always felt guilty whenever he grounded him or Seth. Sandy was just too easy-going. That hard-ass act of his most of the time was just that, an act.

Ryan thought over the conversation that they just had. Sandy had surprised him with what he said about the Oliver thing. Ryan didn't think that Sandy was able to see how he had been talking at first and then stopped when Sandy didn't listen or didn't believe him. He was glad that Sandy finally figured it out.

But now Ryan was feeling a little guilty because he told Sandy that this situation wasn't anything like the Oliver situation. And, well, that wasn't quite true. In both, he was trying to keep a guy who was not a good guy away from his girlfriend. And like with Oliver and Marissa, Ryan was worried that Caleb had charmed Lindsay to the point where she didn't see his bad side any more. She obviously wasn't listening to her mother's warnings about staying away from Caleb, so Ryan wasn't even going to try. If he tried to get Lindsay away from Caleb, Ryan was worried that Lindsay would turn on him, like Marissa did when he tried to get her away from Oliver. Ryan sighed. He just hoped that this situation wouldn't end up going bad, like the Oliver situation did.

Ryan looked back at the phone in his hands and went ahead and called Lindsay.

"Hello?" Good, it was Lindsay. Ryan smiled.

"Hey! I have some good news. I'm not grounded any more."

"That's great, Ryan. So we can go out tomorrow?"

"Sure. I'd like that. So, um, how did everything go with your mother? Did you tell her?"

Lindsay sighed. "Yeah. She wasn't very happy. We got into a fight."

"Oh, no."

"Yeah, we like _never_ fight."

"I'm sorry. Well, this whole Caleb/adoption thing should be settled soon, right? One way or the other. Maybe after that, you and your Mom can work things out."

"I hope so."

* * *

A week later, Ryan found himself at Caleb's, but this time he was invited. They were supposed to get the paternity test results any time now, and everyone involved had gathered. Nobody wanted to be left out. So Ryan picked up Lindsay and met Kirsten there, and of course Caleb and Julie were there. The only one missing was Renee. She and Lindsay were still fighting, and Lindsay told her not to come if she couldn't support her. Ryan just hoped that Lindsay would let her mother comfort her when she got home after hearing the news.

So there they all were, sitting anxiously around in Caleb's living room, waiting for the call. Ryan sat on the couch next to Lindsay and he had his arm around her. He could tell she was nervous. He rubbed her arm with his hand. She looked up at him and gave him a nervous smile. It was the same smile she gave him a few days ago when they went to Caleb's doctor's office to do her part of the paternity test. She was nervous then, too, even though the test itself was simple, just drawing some blood.

Finally, the phone rang. Caleb got up to answer it. Ryan tightened his arm around Lindsay and prepared himself to comfort her when she started crying after hearing that Caleb wasn't her father.

"Hello. Caleb Nichol... Yes, doctor, we've been waiting for your call. And? ..." Caleb looked quickly at Lindsay, and then away. "Thank you for expediting matters... Yes... Good bye, doctor."

After hanging up, Caleb paused for a moment and then turned towards the assembled group. Ryan noticed that he carefully avoided Lindsay's eyes. Ryan could feel Lindsay shifting nervously next to him, and he could tell that she saw it, too.

"I'll get right to the point. Lindsay is not my daughter."

Lindsay burst into tears. Ryan put both arms around her and hugged her close. Ryan glared at Caleb. He sounded so cold, so unfeeling. So he wasn't surprised when Caleb just gave them all a curt nod and left the room without saying anything more. Ryan looked at Julie, who looked back at him expressionlessly for a moment and then followed her husband out.

Ryan turned his attention back to Lindsay. "Shhh.. Shhh... Everything's going to be OK."

Lindsay continued to sob uncontrollably. Ryan looked helplessly at Kirsten. Kirsten, who had been watching this unfold, came over and sat on the couch on the other side of Lindsay. She put out a hand and rubbed her back.

"It's OK, sweetie. It's OK to cry."

Lindsay picked her head up from where she had it buried in Ryan's chest and turned towards Kirsten. "I thought I had a Dad... and a sister... and now I have nothing."

Kirsten continued to rub Lindsay's back. "You still have me. We may not be sisters, but we can be friends, right? Like go shopping together? You know I can't take the boys..."

Kirsten smiled, trying to lighten the mood. It worked. Lindsay smiled at Kirsten then turned around to hug her. "Thank you, Kirsten."

Kirsten looked up at Ryan and they shared a smile as Kirsten hugged Lindsay back. "Ryan, why don't you take Lindsay home?"

Ryan nodded and stood up. Lindsay let go of Kirsten and let Ryan pull her up. Ryan nodded to Kirsten then took Lindsay's hand and led her out of Caleb's house. When Lindsay smiled at him, Ryan knew that she'd be all right, eventually.

* * *

Sandy heard the news from Kirsten when she got home from her father's. He couldn't help but feel sorry for Lindsay. All this up and down, you don't have a father, then you do, then you don't. He hoped that she wasn't too devastated by how things turned out. Sandy waited up for Ryan to return from Lindsay's to see how she was doing.

Sandy was sitting in the family room watching TV alone when he heard the front door open and close. He muted the TV and turned to see if it was Ryan. It was.

"Hey, kid." Ryan heard him and turned to walk down the hallway towards him. "How's Lindsay?"

Ryan sat down in the chair. He shrugged. "She's upset. Her mother's with her."

Sandy nodded. "Poor girl."

Ryan nodded back, then stood up. Sandy expected him to head out to the pool house, but instead he just took off his jacket and sat down again.

"So..."

Sandy turned off the TV and leaned forward. "So?"

"Um... yeah... I guess you want to know now what's been going on..."

Sandy raised his eyebrows. "This is what that was all about? Caleb? Lindsay? The adoption? The paternity test?"

"Yeah."

"OK, shoot."

Ryan took a deep breath and started telling his story.

* * *

To be continued 


	11. Epilogue

Title: Unholy Alliance

Summary: Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to _The O.C_. No profit is taken from this story.

Author's Notes: This is the end of this story. A thank you to everyone who reviewed.

* * *

**Epilogue**

It was like a month later when Ryan was at yet another Newport charity event that he ran into Julie Cooper for the first time since they heard the results of the paternity test between Lindsay and Caleb. He tried to avoid her, and was successful most of the night, but finally, she was able to catch him alone in a quiet corner. Ryan tried, but couldn't see a way to get away without causing a scene, so he was stuck.

Julie grinned at him like a cat with a canary. "Hello, Ryan."

Ryan nodded.

"I've been meaning to thank you..."

"No problem."

Ryan suspected what she was talking about, and didn't want to hear it, so he tried to duck away, but she blocked his path.

"To thank you for the information about Caleb not being Lindsay's father. You know, Caleb hadn't even thought about doing a paternity test until I suggested it, thanks to you. I owe you one."

"Don't worry about it." Ryan tried to get away, again.

"You know, we should do this again. We make a great team. Caleb was right about you. You _are_ a little con artist. A good one."

Ryan frowned at Julie and didn't dignify her comments with a response. He moved away from her again and this time she let him go, but not without a parting shot. She called after him.

"Hey, Ryan, I loved the show you put on, comforting Lindsay after the news. Considering that you set up the whole thing."

Ryan stopped and turned to face Julie, and was just coming up with a response, when they were interrupted.

"Ryan, there you are." It was Lindsay. Then she saw Julie. Her smile disappeared. "Julie."

"Lindsay. Ryan." And with that Julie Cooper swept her way past them and back into the party.

Lindsay turned towards Ryan. "What did she want?"

"Nothing. Um... You want to dance?"

Lindsay looked at him strangely. "You hate to dance."

Ryan shrugged. "I'll make an exception in this case. What do you say?"

"Sure."

Ryan led Lindsay to the dance floor, looking back briefly in the direction that Julie went.

* * *

**The End**


End file.
